These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.

Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.

Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Acolytes Secular
(1505)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 20 September 1505 by bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Repton priory church.

BRIDGES. Cost: £8.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Subdeacons Secular
(1505)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 20 December 1505, by bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Longdon prebendal church.

BRIDGES. Cost: £8.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Deacons Secular
(1506)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 7 March 1506 by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

BRIDGES. Cost: £8.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Priests Secular
(1507)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 29 May 1507, by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Longdon prebendal church.

Liegemen and traitors, diplomats and spies
(1540-1542)The Privy Council of England dealt with many delicate and important matters of state. The surviving records date back as early as the 14th century, but Henry VIII on 10 August 1540, with the advice of the council, ordered that the council should have its own clerk 'to write, entre and registre all such decrees, determinacons, lettres and other such things as he shuld be appoynted to entre in a booke, to remayne alwayes as a leger, aswell for the dischardge of the sayd counsaillours touching such things as they shuld passe from tyme to tyme, as alsoo for a memoriall unto theim of their owne procedings'. The register from that date to 8 April 1542 was transcribed for the Commissioners of the Public Records by sir Harris Nicolas, and published in 1837. Although the council often dealt with petitions from aggrieved subjects, its main function was to oversee internal and external security.

BRIDGES. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Inhabitants of Calais, and visitors
(1485-1543)Richard Turpyn, a burgess of Calais, the English enclave on the French coast, compiled (or possessed) a chronicle of events there from 1485 to 1540, a copy of which survived among the Stowe manuscripts in the Harleian collection in the British Museum. This was edited for the Camden Society, together with a number of other papers relating to events in Calais in that period, by John Gough Nichols, and printed in 1846. Many of the persons named in the resulting book are knights and noblemen attending king Henry VII and king Henry VIII when on the Continent on diplomatic or marital business; but there is also a muster roll of the garrison of Calais of 1533 (136-139).

BRIDGES. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1547-1550)The Privy Council of Edward VI was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters

BRIDGES. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Retired monks, nuns and chantry priests in the east Midlands
(1547-1551)Lists of pensions being paid to monks, nuns and chantry priests in the diocese of Lincoln after the dissolution of the monasteries and chantries. The diocese covered Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, part of Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, which had been shorn from the diocese, are not covered by these returns.

BRIDGES. Cost: £6.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1550-1552)The Privy Council of Edward VI was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters